ケロロ軍曹 Episode 73
Sgt. Frog anime, 73
Keroro Gunsou episode 73

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Aki-san decides that the family should go to the fireworks festival that night. Fuyuki is depressed because he has to go to the pool for a swim class. Aki-san says she has miracle magic and draws a star on Fuyuki’s right palm. Fuyuki sets out as a thunderstorm begins to build. He finds Keroro and the platoon trying to catch bugs as Keroro is determined to sell these beetles. They were using the “If I Can Do Life Over Again” (translated name) gun to cause the trees to age a bit to attract more beetles. The storm hits and a lengthy lightning strike on the gun causes the forest to grow younger and disappear as well as the Nishizawa Tower.

The platoon and Fuyuki return to where the Hinata house used to be, but there is a field there instead. Stopping at a vending machine for a beverage, Fuyuki sees a posted flyer stating that it is 198x and they realize they’ve gone back in time. Keroro sends the platoon out to investigate with Fuyuki being with Keroro. They head into the city where Keroro and Fuyuki see life as it was in the 80’s. Fuyuki runs into a girl who turns out to be the middle-school aged Aki-san, who has been able to catch glimpses of Keroro despite the anti-barrier.

Keroro hides on a roof and is joined by Kururu as three yankee girls arrive to give Aki and Fuyuki grief. After Aki makes a remark to the yankee’s who decide that she and Fuyuki must pay. The two take off and though they end up being chased down a dead-end ally, Aki uses her athletic ability to get both of them out of the jam. They board a train and she tells Fuyuki that she cut class to see the ocean. At a hillside, they look at Tokyo Bay where Aki tells Fuyuki things about being pressured to try to decide her future. They are observed by Kururu and Keroro with Kururu stating that they can erase Aki’s memory if needed.

A rain shower appears, causing Aki and Fuyuki to seek shelter at a nearby shrine. As they let their clothes dry, Aki notices that Fuyuki is worried and tells him she has magic to help, but is surprised when she sees a star already drawn on Fuyuki’s hand. When she touches it, she has a flash of the future as does Fuyuki. Fuyuki falls asleep, leading Aki to put on his clothes, realizing she and he look alot alike. Indeed, as Aki walks outside, Keroro thinks she is Fuyuki so that when she asks for a ride on the sauser, Keroro agrees.

Kururu comes to erase Aki’s memories and discovers it is Fuyuki. Kururu has learned that only Earth went back 20-years and not the universe, meaning that a similar energy discharge onto the gun can return Earth back to the present. Fuyuki makes a call to the sleeping Moa-chan in orbit to make a request on Keroro’s behalf. After Keroro returns with Aki-san, he realizes his mistake. However, Aki-san is willing to have her memory erased and as the sleepy Moa-chan lends her power to perform a strike on the gun, time returns to normal so that the adult Aki-san, Natsumi, Fuyuki, and the platoon can enjoy the fireworks.

Thoughts/Review: Being a child of the 80’s myself, I have to say that I rather enjoyed this episode’s trip back to that time zone, especially since I lived in Japan in the late 80’s. ^_^ I laughed at Keroro’s puzzlement over the boom box’s tape deck (complete with tape) and lack of a CD player. I found it interesting that Keroro noted how different people looked back in the 80’s hair-wise. I hadn’t realized so much hair dying goes on these days vs. back then. And of course, one can never forget how cheap vending machine drinks were back then with the pull tabs. ^_^

Story-wise, I enjoyed seeing how Aki-san was as a middle school girl. I don’t know if this story came from the manga or not, but regardless, it was nice seeing were Fuyuki inherited some of his interests. Aki was pretty cool when she handled the Yankee chicks. I was kinda hoping she’d have a sense of having met Fuyuki with the magic star. I’m not sure why I wanted that because it would cause potential plot problems but oh well. No big deal.

So an enjoyable romp to the 80’s that I think will appeal to older anime fans than younger ones, but Keroro fans will enjoy it either way.